Monday, December 26, 2011

Those not afflicted with conspiracy-phobia will be reminded of Operation Paperclip, a confirmed post-World War II US intelligence project in which Third Reich key personnel were targeted for recruitment. Select Nazi scientists were provided asylum in the States in exchange for their contributions to American intelligence interests. “Our Germans are better than your Germans,” went the Cold War era running joke between the CIA and KGB.

Further concerns might be raised by the fact US-based funding entities, including the Rockefeller Foundation, financially aided eugenic research conducted in pre-World War II Germany and elsewhere. This has long been accepted as fact among historians and as reported on George Mason University's History News Network, among any number of sources defined as credible by the professional research community.

Now, any self-respecting realist will find nothing surprising about world powers demonstrating double standards. Most of us are all too aware politics courts hypocrisy, so let us move along to further considerations of how such circumstances might be relevant to ufology.

Progeria and Genetic Testing

A couple years ago, a valued associate and good friend, Iza, known on line as stiver, brought Progeria and its implications to my attention. She contributed substantially to my understandings of the following information.

Progeria is a rare childhood genetic disorder, typically including an enlarged head and absence of hair, in which accelerated aging occurs. According to the Progeria Research Foundation, the disorder is due to genetic mutation.﻿﻿﻿ ﻿

﻿
﻿﻿

Dolly's taxidermied remains.

Iza studied other evolving genetic research, including cloning. She noted the curious similarities between symptoms of Progeria and certain clones, such as Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Dolly developed arthritis and other disorders common to much older sheep, resulting in her premature death at the age of six years, only about half the life expectancy of the average sheep. Essentially, Dolly died of old age while still young, Iza noted, just like those stricken with Progeria.

If any doubts remain that intelligence officials would take serious interest in genetic research, consider a BBC report about cloned cattle. Scientists observed in six cloned cows what was literally termed reversed aging! The cows simply aged at a significantly slower than normal pace.

A small number of UFO and alien abduction researchers have considered the implications of Progeria and genetic research. Some of their resulting work is reasonably well conceived while some leaves more than a bit to be desired.

Nick Redfern tried to raise awareness of relevant possibilities. He wrote about Progeria and related circumstances in some of his books, as well as posted about it on UFO Updates List. Redfern wrote the List, “And I still find it interesting that I found files – forwarded to the Nuclear Energy for Propulsion of Aircraft people at Oak Ridge and the Biology Division at Oak Ridge, no less - in 1947 on radiation experiments undertaken that summer on people with Progeria.”

I find it interesting, too. I also find it interesting that those diagnosed with Progeria so closely resemble descriptions of supposed human-alien hybrid beings as described by alleged alien abductees. Let us explore such things and the potential ties to Oak Ridge, also known as Atomic City and as cited by Redfern, a bit further.

Covert Research

A 1977 article titled, Private Institutions Used in CIA Effort to Control Behaviorand published by The New York Times, delved into mind control experiments perpetrated by the American intelligence community during Project MKULTRA. Among other noteworthy items, the article cited some 25 years of covert experiments conducted at colleges, medical institutions and research facilities, funded by nonprofit organizations acting as conduits for the Central Intelligence Agency.

During the 1990's the Clinton administration established the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The committee was created to investigate allegations involuntary human research subjects were deceived and abused during radiation experiments, some of which were alleged to have been perpetrated by MKULTRA personnel. The committee ultimately concluded an estimated 11,000 people were treated negligently by the US government in the course of radiation experiments, some of which were fatal.

The advisory committee heard testimony, sometimes absolutely horrific in nature, from individuals claiming to be victims. One such self-described victim was Suzanne Starr, a woman who, among other nightmarish allegations, stated she was subjected to an induced pregnancy resulting in her baby boy being taken from her, presumably for further experimentation. One reasonable interpretation would be that a primary difference between testimonies narrated by Starr and those narrated by some possible alien abductees is that Starr blamed CIA operatives for her abuse rather than aliens, whatever that may or may not ultimately indicate.

It should be noted that certain MKULTRA victims, some of which were indeed conclusively verified to have been among those abused during the notorious operations conducted at Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, claimed to have observed pathetically mutated individuals at the facility. The details and existence of such alleged mutated individuals cannot be confirmed and may of course indicate circumstances other than actuality in at least some instances. My point being there are demographics in addition to alien abductees that describe experiences similar to that of abductees, including allegations of extensive testing, including genetic, the circumstances of which have historical precedence and substantially more likelihood.

All things considered, if a claim of a stolen fetus or ominous encounter with a child having wispy hair, large eyes and an enlarged head were to ever be substantiated, could we sincerely look one another in the eye, with full knowledge of factual information such as cited in this post, and say space invaders were really the most likely explanation? Really?

Friday, December 23, 2011

Many of us in the UFO community develop tentative understandings of one another largely based on our interactions that can be rather one-dimensional and therefore create incomplete assessments of each other. While our UFO-related discussions may represent our interests in ufology, we are multifaceted individuals with diverse interests. More complete understandings of our personalities, life experience and resulting views of ufology, and views of most everything else, for that matter, might be found by exploring additional, yet somewhat related, subject matter.

In an effort to periodically promote more diversity and versatility, I invite readers to currently join me in considering the work, lives and creativity of some musicians who relatively recently passed away. I find the topic interesting and I simultaneously find a related subject of interest: the manners our opinions and beliefs are sewn throughout our interdependent personal interests. Discussion and comments are encouraged, as always.

Gerry Rafferty is best known for hits such as Baker Street and Right Down the Line. He left us in 2011, perhaps to join the Higher Power he described calling out to in City to City, my favorite Rafferty song. Goodnight and go on home, Gerry...

Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band suffered an irreparable loss when sax player Clarence "Big Man" Clemons passed away in June of 2011. The Big Man loyally collaborated with The Boss for decades, and perhaps fans will most remember him for his now-legendary contribution to Jungle Land. I have often thought if the feeling of being a young man, with all of its passions and nostalgia, had a sound, this sax solo would be that sound.

Unless one happened to appreciate the genuine talent of Amy Winehouse, they might be more likely to recall Winehouse's battles with her demons than anything else about her. However, she accomplished the holy grail of being authentically creative within an industry where musicians struggle endlessly - and quite uniformly - to be unique. While committing tragically ironic mistakes, such as rebelliously singing about refusing to go to rehab, the young woman nonetheless displayed a style and torch voice not paralleled for generations.

Winehouse was adored by her fans for both her original work as well as her interestingly creative covers. Those who loved her will indeed still love her tomorrow, regardless of mistakes she made, while the rest, who fail to realize such eccentric characteristics are simply par for the course among such personalities, never understood people like Winehouse in the first place.

During decades of tragedies both relatively unavoidable and self-induced, the dwindling number of surviving members of southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd emerged and evolved. The year 2009 saw the loss of piano and keyboard player Billy Powell, whose talents were long time staples of Skynyrd hits. In addition to his outstanding musical ability, Powell will be remembered for courageously taking the role as a physically and emotionally battered spokesperson in the wake of the infamous and devastating plane crash of 1977.

Perhaps nowhere among the often broken lives and bones of the music industry are life's tragic and glorious ironies more observable than in the remarkable saga of Lynyrd Skynyrd. American writer Ernest "Papa" Hemingway once said, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." True enough, I'd say.

"Here’s how I see it: Empathy is the ability to respect and maybe even understand another’s point of view, revealing larger truths about ourselves and others. Exploitation is the use of another’s experience for personal gain. Empathy requires self-awareness. Exploitation is marked by self-interest. Empathy is about deepening connections. Exploitation, about filling one’s pockets, literal or figurative."